The present invention relates generally to telecommunication techniques. More particularly, the present invention provides a novel technique, including computer codes, to reduce unwanted e-mail messages from a personal computer, workstation, or the like. These unwanted e-mail messages that were unsolicited are commonly referred to as “SPAM.” SPAM includes junk mail or junk e-mail messages including get-rich-quick schemes, advertisements, adult web site information, donation requests, political campaign information, and the like.
A variety of techniques have been used to transmit written messages from one geographic location to another. In the early days, people or messengers were the sole means used to carry written information from one person to another person. Although effective and still used today, messengers were limited by their physical abilities. That is, some messengers could not travel over rough terrain such as rocks, jungles, and other landscapes. Large bodies of water were also difficult to cross. Additionally, messengers generally could not travel over long distances in a short period of time. A human messenger could only travel a few miles or tens of miles during a typical day.
Accordingly, messengers were replaced, at least in part, by carrier pigeons. More particularly, carrier pigeons were used to move small pieces of papers having written information thereon from one geographic location to another. Carrier pigeons were quite efficient in some applications but could not generally travel over substantial distances. Accordingly, a relay of ponies and human riders was used for long distance travel across the North American continent. This relay of ponies was called the “Pony Express.” The Pony Express carried written communication in the form of mail on leather pouches carried on the relay of ponies across the United States. Although all of these techniques were somewhat effective, they were often costly, unreliable, and difficult to achieve.
In the modern day world, a combination of transportation techniques are used in the postal system. These techniques include, among others, human carriers (e.g., mailmen), motorized vehicles such as cars or trucks, and airplanes, jets, and the like to physically transport mail throughout the United States. Conventional postal systems are often reliable and cost efficient. They are so efficient that they are often subject to many undesirable influences. One of these influences is the routine transmission of unsolicited advertisements, information, and the like to many households across the United States. On any typical day, an average household receives at least one, if not more than one, unsolicited advertisement. As merely an example, the advertisement can be for carpet cleaning, credit cards, and other goods or services that are routinely sent by companies in an attempt to secure a purchase from the household. In many cases, these unsolicited advertisements often burden the postal system, although the advertisers at least pay for the service. Additionally, households are burdened by the advertisements, which are thrown away. These unsolicited advertisements are also termed as “Junk Mail.”
Unfortunately, junk mail is not limited to use in only the conventional postal systems. In many wide area computer networking applications, junk mail is commonly sent to users in large groups, often thousands or perhaps millions of users. For instance, a user of a well known wide area network of computers, which is known as the “Internet,” often receives numerous lines of junk mail, which has been coined as SPAM! In fact, SPAM refers to such unsolicited advertisements that come to the user by way of electronic mail, also known as “e-mail.” The senders of SPAM are often termed “spammers”. Unlike regular mail advertisers, spammers do not pay for the privilege to send SPAM to recipients e-mail boxes.
SPAM has become a significant problem because the volume of SPAM is large. As a courtesy, and under the threat of possible legislation restricting SPAM, many distributors of SPAM now send SPAM with instructions to the recipients of the SPAM on how to be removed from the SPAM distribution list. In most cases, however, e-mail messages often do not include such instructions on how to remove a recipient from a junk e-mail distribution list.
In the cases where instructions are provided, many drawbacks exist. As merely an example, some of the ways to be removed from the mailing lists is time consuming to the recipient. Additionally, there are simply no standards on how recipients may be removed from such mailing lists. Furthermore, the techniques that are available to the recipient often require the recipient to perform time consuming tasks, such as sending a reply e-mail to the junk e-mail message and specifically typing a request to be removed from the mailing list, forwarding the e-mail message to another e-mail address and typing a request with specified text requesting removal, connecting to a particular web site and following instructions for removal (incidentally, benefiting the SPAM web site by providing an advertising “hit” for the web site), and the like.
Filters have also been used or proposed to remove junk e-mail messages from a recipients e-mail. In fact, various programs have been developed in an attempt to filter-out junk e-mail messages from in boxes. Such programs appear to focus upon the e-mail address, host source, the format of the message, the content, and the like. Typically such programs are programmed by the user to detect junk e-mail, and to automatically delete them so the user is not bothered by them, or automatically put into a junk folder. A drawback to such programs is that the user is forced to determine the criteria for filtering, a complicated task for the average user. Another drawback to such programs is that the filters defined by the user, or pre-set may filter-out legitimate bulk e-mail messages that are of interest to the user, for example, e-mail messages from special interest groups, product recall and product warning notices, valuable product promotions from legitimate businesses, complementary upgrade notices and bug patches for software programs, freebees, and the like.
One company developing products to enhance the use of filtering techniques has been Bright Light Technologies in San Francisco. The Bright Light system appears to disclose providing a central clearing house of identified SPAM messages. Bright Light appears to use the SPAM data to form data files which are downloaded to Bright Light subscribers. The subscribers utilize the data files to create filters within their e-mail programs that then filter-out SPAM messages.
Bright Light appears to gather SPAM data by setting up dummy or “probe” e-mail accounts with e-mail providers, for example, Juno.com, Excite.com, or the like. When these dummy accounts receive e-mail messages, Bright Light appear to automatically or manually determine whether the e-mail is SPAM. If the e-mail message is determined to be SPAM, characteristics of the e-mail message, such as sender and the subject text appear to be entered into the SPAM data file.
One drawback with the current Bright Light technique is that automatic determination of SPAM may require a high level of Al programming and programming resources. Another drawback is that manual determination of SPAM may require round-the clock hiring of personnel and personnel resources.
Yet another drawback with the current Bright Light technique is that use of such dummy or probe e-mail accounts are passive do not receive SPAM as would active e-mail accounts. It is well known that electronic mass marketers use a variety of techniques for obtaining e-mail address lists than just who has an e-mail account. For example, marketers obtain e-mail address from user posts on various Internet sites such as news group sites, chat room sites, or directory services sites, message board sites, mailing lists, and identifying “mailto” address links provided on web pages. Using these and other similar methods, electronic mass marketers may effectively obtain large numbers of mailing addresses, which become targets for their advertisements and other unsolicited messages. Mere passive accounts would thus not have the same exposure to such mass marketers, as would e-mail accounts of real live web users. As a result, a reduced number of SPAM e-mail messages may be sent to such dummy or probe accounts.
From the above, it is seen that an improved technique for removing and preventing repeat junk e-mail messages is highly desired.